Zamir urges ‘external’ probe into Oct. 7 failures, like ‘after Yom Kippur War,’ but avoids calling for state inquiry

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reiterates that while the military is fully responsible for the failures on October 7, 2023, in order to reach full conclusions an “external” commission of inquiry must be established.

“The IDF has taken responsibility and investigated itself, but the incident is not its alone, and it would not be appropriate to direct all the attention solely toward it,” Zamir writes in a missive to officers, summarizing the findings of a team of former senior officers who conducted a review of the IDF’s internal probes into the failures on October 7.

“To reach the truth and full national-level conclusions, an external and objective commission of inquiry must be established, as was done after the [1973] Yom Kippur War,” he says.

The chief of staff says that “among other things, the interface between the political echelon and the military echelon, and the political and security conceptions that preceded the war, must be investigated.”

Zamir notably avoids explicitly calling for a state commission of inquiry, which the government opposes despite surveys showing a majority of the public supports it. A state commission of inquiry was carried out after the 1973 war.